from the because-it's-comcast dept

David Kravets, over at Ars Technica, has a good post detailing how Comcast is doing questionable packet injection to put its own javascript ads onto websites if you're surfing via Comcast's public WiFi access points. The practice was spotted by Ryan Singel, who saw the following "XFINITY WIFI: Peppy" ad scoot across his screen:

Comcast, in typical Comcast fashion, appears to be totally and completely oblivious as to why this could possibly be seen as a problem:

A Comcast spokesman told Ars the program began months ago. One facet of it is designed to alert consumers that they are connected to Comcast's Xfinity service. Other ads remind Web surfers to download Xfinity apps, Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas told Ars in telephone interviews.

The advertisements may appear about every seven minutes or so, he said, and they last for just seconds before trailing away. Douglas said the advertising campaign only applies to Xfinity's publicly available Wi-Fi hot spots that dot the landscape. Comcast customers connected to their own Xfinity Wi-Fi routers when they're at home are not affected, he said.

"We think it's a courtesy, and it helps address some concerns that people might not be absolutely sure they're on a hotspot from Comcast," Douglas said.

It's a courtesy to hijack the page a person asked for and insert something that no one asked for on it? I don't think so. There's a reason that packet injection is considered an attack and a security risk -- and it's got nothing to do with courtesy.

Certainly, the website that Singel was browsing when he spotted it, Mediagzer, was not pleased about having its own site hijacked and defaced:

"Indeed, they were not ours," Gabe Rivera, who runs Mediagazer and Techmeme, said in an e-mail. In another e-mail, he said, "someone else is inserting them in a sneaky way."

Kravets also talks to Robb Topolski, the guy who first provided the evidence to show that Comcast was throttling BitTorrent a while back, kicking off one of the first big net neutrality fights (which resulted in the FCC slapping Comcast's wrists). Topolski notes that what they're doing here is technically equivalent:

To Topolski, what Comcast is now doing is no different from before: Comcast is adding data into the broadband packet stream. In 2007, it was packets serving up disconnection commands. Today, Comcast is inserting JavaScript that is serving up advertisements, according to Topolski, who reviewed Singel's data.

"It's the duty of the service provider to pull packets without treating them or modifying them or injecting stuff or forging packets. None of that should be in the province of the service provider," he said. "Imagine every Web page with a Comcast bug in the lower righthand corner. It's the antithesis of what a service provider is supposed to do. We want Internet access, not another version of cable TV."

But, of course, to the big broadband players, the last few years have been all about them trying to make the internet much more like cable TV, where they get to act as the gatekeepers and have much more control. The ability to inject their own ads into various webpages is just another bonus.

from the because-comcast-thinks-you're-an-idiot dept

Comcast continues its efforts to present itself as one of the most out of touch and ridiculous companies out there, with a new commercial directed at videogamers, highlighting how fast Comcast's in-game WiFi is.

Note how it's addressed to "real gamers." Just one problem, as "Mr. Comcast" goes on about how there's "no buffering" and how much better the video gaming experience is with Comcast's Xfinity WiFi, people pointed out that the game in question has no online play. The game is Ubisoft's Trials Fusion, which means that there's no reason there would be any buffering at all in the first place.

Mr. Comcast gets the gamers playing Trials Fusion. The game is indeed a shiny new title, released on PC and for the major gaming consoles (Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4) just a few weeks ago. The motorcycle tricks-and-racing game launched to generally positive reviews that lauded its mechanics and features. But reviewers also mentioned one notable feature that the game does not have: an online multiplayer mode.

No online mode, no net connection. No network connection, no network lag.

“Do you notice any buffering?” Mr. Comcast then asks.

The gamers happily reply that they do not! And of course they don’t: the game ships on a disc or as a one-time digital download. It’s not on a streaming or cloud service like a Netflix or YouTube video; there’s nothing to buffer. That would be akin to asking if you see Microsoft Word buffering when you type a report on your work computer. Your software might be running slowly, but “buffering” is definitely not the issue.